Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Preemptive Strike! (no, not a new attack name...)

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tinox6

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Hey everybody, I have been doing some reading today about the format in Japan from...some....other....pokesite..eherm. They recently had their National championships and Spring Carnival (which sounds cool) and there has been a clear LACK of Rayquaza EX in top cut. There were no straightforward "Rayquaza EX" decks to top cut, and the deck that did play it was Zekrom Eels (in a black and white on format). Now, out of the top 16 from their National Championship, only 4 Zekrom Eels decks made it, and it's not even clear as to how many of them played Rayquaza EX, and only 1 Zekrom Eels made top 8, and it lost in top 4.

So I'd like to consider this my preemptive strike to help us all avoid the potentially ensuing preoder hysteria of Rayquaza EX by alerting all of us players to the idea that we might be over-hyping Rayqauza EX, while being semi-near sighted with the potential future format.

So seriously, can we just quit with the idea of $60-80 pre-order cards already?? After all, if we all hyped Entei or something like that, what would it's preorder price have been? It's all in how we approach it, in other words.

So maybe it is a new attack name...

** Preemptive Strike - alert everyone to the counter-productivity of over-hyping and under-testing a card so that preorder prices remain reasonable and deck creativity flourishes.

-Guy
 
Still pre-ordering it.

I don't think you quite understand why the pre-order prices rise to that level. It's not because people are saying the card is good on message boards. It's because people are going out and paying those pre-order prices. If people refuse to pay those prices, the cards will drop in price. If people continue to be willing to pay those prices for the cards, the prices will continue to be that high.
 
Yeah, I mean you're right, it's all about supply and demand (mainly demand from players, like you said). But I do think the demand (or people being willing to pay for a card, like you said) is due to the way cards are hyped on these and other message boards and around the pokemon community in general
 
tinox6 said:
Yeah, I mean you're right, it's all about supply and demand (mainly demand from players, like you said). But I do think the demand (or people being willing to pay for a card, like you said) is due to the way cards are hyped on these and other message boards and around the pokemon community in general
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hype can't really be avoided though. Players are always looking ahead at new cards, deck archetypes, etc.. and thats really easy to achieve in pokemon as our cards are released months ahead of time in Japan. its human nature to see something new and be really excited for it. best way to go about it is just not to pre-order yourself.
 
Also as a preemptive strike...

The winning deck at Japanese Nationals was Darkrai/Hydreigon. Y'know, the one that does 140 damage.
 
Even if Rayquaza EX preorders do reach the $80 mark, the price should drop since its a promo card, too.
 
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Hey, Hydreigon/Darkrai is a fantastic deck, but that's no blow to Rayquaza. Hydregon's greatest strength is getting trainers with Sableye, which may explain why he was able to last through a large event such as Nats.

Perhaps running Zeel with Sableye is a possibility?
 
King Piplup said:
There is ZERO guarantee they will make Rayquaza an English Promo.

Let's not jump to conclusions.


Posted with Mobile style...
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You're right. However, it is highly probable that they will, since it's a promo card in japan, and "dragon tins" are confirmed (for september?).
 
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Just playing devils advocate here but arent they in a completely different format then what well be played at worlds. Worlds is hgss - on, not bw - on. We have access to cards in the hgss block that might make rayquaza the powerhouse people believe him to be. Its gonna be a mewtwo situation because rayquaza is the best counter to rayquaza.
 
Ray will NOT be in the Worlds format.

The next BW set doesn't officially release until one week AFTER the World Championships.
 
Cyrus said:
Hey, Hydreigon/Darkrai is a fantastic deck, but that's no blow to Rayquaza,
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Hydreigon/Darkrai EX may not be a blow to Rayquaza EX, but this is:

1st - Hydreigon + Darkrai EX
2nd - Garchomp + Altaria
3rd - Eelektrik + Zekrom + Mewtwo EX + Raikou EX
4th - Mewtwo EX + Terrakion EX + Bouffalant
Top 8
Empoleon + Terrakion + Mew EX
Gothitelle + Accelgor + Mew EX + Darkrai EX + Musharna
Ho-Oh EX + Tornadus EX
Eelektrik + Zekrom + Mewtwo EX
Top 16
Hydreigon + Darkrai EX
Eelektrik + Zekrom + Mewtwo EX + Raikou EX
Eelektrik + Zekrom + Mewtwo EX + Raikou EX + Tornadus EX
Darkrai EX + Mewtwo EX + Tornadus EX + Tornadus
Mewtwo EX + Terrakion
Garchomp + Altaria
Darkrai EX + Mewtwo EX + Bouffalant
Mewtwo EX + Terrakion EX + Terrakion + Sigilyph + Stunfisk

Best part? Stunfisk made it into more T16 decks than Rayquaza EX.

I'm not saying it will be forever unplayable as the meta evolves, but from the information we have now, things aren't looking good for it.
 
Japanese Decks seem to be different then other countries decks. Just because it isn't played over there, doesn't mean its not going to be played a lot here.

Remember Lost Gar? Seemed dominant over in Japan, but once it came here, it didn't perform as amazing that everyone thought.
 
Bilbo Baggins said:
Japanese Decks seem to be different then other countries decks. Just because it isn't played over there, doesn't mean its not going to be played a lot here.

Remember Lost Gar? Seemed dominant over in Japan, but once it came here, it didn't perform as amazing that everyone thought.
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The Japanese and American metagames have a 6 month lag because of set release dates, but the metagames that feature the same corresponding sets are similar more than they are different. The Gengar (Prime) example is more an exception than the norm.

I could just as easily say "Remember Mewtwo EX? Seems dominant over in Japan, and once it came here, it performed just as amazingly as everyone thought."

You can replace Mewtwo EX with a bunch of other card names, like Zekrom, Reshiram, Cobalion, Chandelure, Darkrai EX, Tornadus EX, etc.

I'm not saying that Rayquaza EX won't ever be good here in the US. I'm just saying that from the evidence currently available, it looks like Rayquaza EX is unplayable in the current Japanese metagame because of Garchomp. There's no reason for me to believe that Rayquaza EX would do any better here in the US once we have the same metagame (BLW-DB). Don't get me wrong, I love the card. I too hope that it will one day be playable for nostalgia's sake.
 
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